Deep Under
by chocolaterox10113
Summary: Two explorers are searching through one of England's catacombs. What type of trouble will they get into. Trying not to give too much away here so you'll just have to read it and see.
1. Chapter 1

Deep underground in one of the newly discovered catacombs in Europe, two young archeologists are sent on their first job. They have started down the stairs and as soon as they reach the bottom are thrown into the past.

"Nothing has changed or been touched here for years," said twenty year old Benjy Jackson.

"I know, I mean I've been on sight at a lot of places before but nothing like this, they've all been above ground," stated Sheryl Hatherly. She was three years older than Benjy but had graduated in the same class. They were both friends and had been for the many years they spent in college and later training. Sheryl was strong and refused to say that she was slightly scared to continue on, but Benjy was just as stubborn. One of the first things they had learned was if something didn't feel right, especially at an underground sight, then they should tell a superior and get out immediately. Of course these two explorers, being young and inexperienced, refused to admit that they were so uncomfortable in this musty place.

As they started walking deeper into the still-preserved catacombs Sheryl whispered, "This reminds me of that story written by Edgar Allen Poe."

"Oh, the Cask of Amontillado?" Benjy questioned, matching Sheryl's hushed tone.

"Yeah, that's the one," Sheryl replied. Neither was quite sure why they were whispering, but it just seemed appropriate in this dark, damp atmosphere.

**Sorry it's a super super short beginning. There shall be more but I wanted to be able to start something new during Spanish tomorrow so I had to cut it short. Reviews please!!! I'm begging you, I'm trying to improve my writing so be critical. Thanks ******


	2. Chapter 2

**Two new explorers just entered one of the many unexplored catacombs of Europe. Considering the previous chapter you can probably see where this is going but oh well, I want to write it anyway.**

Sheryl and Bejy had walked deeper into the catacombs when the stumbled upon an old, empty, discarded bottle that probably used to contain sherry. It was covered in dust, and there was no label. Sheryl noticed it first and bent down to pick it up.

"Hey Benjy, hold on a second, look what I found," she said, still whispering.

"Oh it's just an old bottle," he whispered back. "People always used to bring alcohol down here because they thought it kept them from being affected by all the mold that's down here."

"I know," she said, kneeling down to look at the floor around it. "But usually they didn't leave stuff like this down here. This is the burial place of all their ancestors, they wouldn't just leave something like this down here unless as an offering of some kind, in which case they would have put a marking somewhere. And the bottle wouldn't have been lying down."

"Fine," Benjy agree, bending slightly so his whispering could be heard by Sheryl who was combing the area around the bottle for any signs of anything. The slight movement of air from his breathing caused some of the dirt that was on the damp, stone wall to blow off. A coat of arms became slightly visible under the dust and he called Sheryl's attention to it. Just as he noticed that she noticed something that only an archeologist could have noticed. There were, or at least had been, footprints in the dust. The only way she could tell was that the dust a few places was thinner than the dust around it. It looked like two people had been walking along here and had stopped at this spot and has been here talking.

"Benjy look at this," she said. Simultaneously he said, "Sheryl look at this." They carefully traded places. Neither of them recognized the coat of arms so they decided to continue on. They decided that they didn't have to be that careful of the footprints because they had been taught over and over, "footprints usually don't matter so only save them if they seem super important or it's absolutely no work to go around them." Every once in a while they would see the same coat of arms on the wall. It was clear no one had been down here for years and years. Everything was covered in dust that had sat there for centuries because it was so damp down in the catacombs that there was never any air movement to disturb the dust. The tunnel was arched about a foot or so over their head, and the only place there wasn't dust was the peak of the arch, where the dust couldn't stick. There were little hallways off to the side that were clear dead ends, but it had been decided before they even went into the deep crypt that they would just find the end and then get out. They could do some more exploring later.

After a long silence Sheryl, in an attempt at conversation said, "So Benjy, what do you think was up with those footprints?"

"Maybe they were just looking at the coat of arms?" he suggested.

"Yeah, maybe," she said uncertainly, there was something on her mind that she hoped he had noticed but she was too nervous to bring it up. This atmosphere could make you come up with silly ideas like that, it was probably just me she reasoned. Meanwhile Benjy was thinking exactly the same thing.

**So what did they notice? Who know? Ooh intrigue, leave reviews please please please, I want to hear what you have to say.**


	3. Chapter 3

**So the story gets more interesting, they find footprints and some strange fact that both are too afraid to mention. What shall come next? Read on and we shall see!**

As Benjy and Sheryl got deeper and deeper into the catacombs they got more and more nervous at the thought of what they would find at the end. Benjy finally decided that the weird fact that he had noticed earlier was too important to go unmentioned. He would just have to find a way to deal with it if Sheryl laughed at him or bugged him about the fact that he didn't mention it earlier. It was like high school all over again with the totally pointless social drama and worry.

"Hey, umm, Sheryl," he started. "About those footprints back there, umm, I just noticed that even though there were two pairs of prints leading forward to the back of the catacombs, umm, there was only one pair leading away," he said it slowly, with unsure noises in between as he went, but he still was happy he said it. He felt like it was easier to breathe, it was hard enough in the damp atmosphere but that was just too much.

"Yeah I noticed that too, I just thought I might be going crazy with the mold and dampness," she said. She too felt the relief at having that fact out in the open and having mentioned her reasons. Benjy caught on quickly that she was just as uncomfortable as he was so he started to relax a little, not feeling quite as foolish.

"So…" He trailed off. "What do you make of that?"

"Well, the only thing I can think of is one person stayed down here which probably means that they died after they entered the catacombs. We should try and pay attention to the footprints to see where they turn from two pairs to one. Or where one of them looks more like the person was being dragged rather than walking by their own power." She stated all this morbid information as just simple facts despite the churning feeling that was in her stomach.

Finally they reached the end of the catacombs. It was a square room that had a few little niches leading off that weren't worth exploring because they could see where they ended just by lifting up their lights and they didn't have anything interesting in them.

Before they got too far into the end chamber they scoured the floor for the footprints. They found an area that led straight up to a wall where the footprints seemed to show that the person stumbled into the wall. The other person seemed to have paced back and forth between one place and another before leaving alone.

"Sheryl…" Benjy started, becoming truly unnerved by the patterns on the floor.

"Yeah Benjy," she started, seeming confused as to why he was so nervous. Then she suddenly exclaimed, "Oh my god!" By this time he had walked to the wall and tapped it.

"It's hollow on the other side," he said, sounding more frightened by the minute.

"Should we?" she asked, not wanting to finish the sentence, afraid that she would choke up from fear.

He took a deep breath before replying, "Yeah."

They worked in silence and by the time there was one brick left, they were pretty sure they had found where the narrator had led Fortunado in the story. Finally they took away the final brick and as soon as it was gone a voice surrounded the chamber. All the bricks they had just taken away from the wall had closed up the space they had come through.

"Who goes there!" the voice screamed. They ran to start taking away the bricks that barricaded them in the chamber, but the voice seemed to take that poorly.

A second later Benjy looked next to him and saw Sheryl lying dead. He bent down, hoping she had just passed out from fright, but she had no pulse, and strangely enough she was already cold. Before he could even stand up he too was killed and the spirit of Fortunado escaped through the hole formed by the one brick they had managed to remove.

Later the other archeologists came down to the catacombs to explore and found the wall with the one hole in it. When they came they found Benjy and Sheryl, still with looks of shock on their faces.

As they bent down to examine them, the wall they had just taken down re-built itself, and this time two voiced echoed in the gloomy dampness. None of the explorers would be found until years later and it was only whispered among the people of the city that because they had disturbed the wrongfully dead, they were never allowed to see light again. The vindictiveness of people was mostly shown in death, they said, and because all of those people had been killed without reason they had to get payback on all of humanity.

Eventually two new, young explorers went down to the catacombs, this time to be greeted by a whole host of voices. And so the story went for years to come until a local leader decided to permanently close the area to stop all those mysterious deaths.

**So it's over and no more Sheryl and Bejy. Hope you at least kind of like it :)**


End file.
